Thanks Rene for bumping this forward. I, too, seem to be grieving more for Shooter than any of my other dogs. Possibly a side effect of all the energy we put into the fight process? I don't think I am waiting for Shooter to come home, but I will really have to think on that. This weekend is a "first" weekend - the first trip to a weekend competition without Shooter and both my husband and I are slightly struggling with it.

Take care all!

Luanne & Spirit Shooter

Well said Sally.

Thanks for the article link - quite timely and interesting.

I've been struggling a bit more in the last few weeks with the loss of Peda. Not quite sure if I'm in to the 'complicated grief' as such, but certainly I think Luanne and Sally are both on track when saying it is the depth of energy that we put in to our tripawd's journey that may influence the greater loss we feel?

In other news, Neo was put to sleep last night (possibly heart failure? I wasn't there so I don't know exactly what happened). Neo was Peda's 'sister' - not litter mates by any stretch - they both came home together 10.5 years ago and were only a couple of weeks apart in age. Neo had her own battle with cancer several years ago and had her lower jaw removed. At the time it was meant to relieve pain and buy her more time. It turned out she had a rare orthodontal tumour, and so the removal of her jaw saved her life. She went on to live a happy few years that we didn't think she would have. Removing her jaw (well, not all of it!) did not diminsh her quality of life one bit - although it did add to her drool issue - but she was always a drooly dog (being a lab / rotti mix) so it wasn't that big a deal.  After Peda died, Neo moved out to live with her mum (who had moved house a number of years ago but had decided Neo should stay with Peda as they were best buddies and getting older at that stage. Being larger breed dogs we never knew how short their time may be and it seemed only fair to keep them together). I'm glad Neo got to spend her last few months with her human! She also got to meet Boots (my new puppy) a few times - as she came to stay for a couple of weeks when her mum went away. In more recent weeks, a new puppy called Zander arrived in her house and so she helped to settle him in and guide him in the ways of being 'dog'. It's a shame she didn't get to stay with him longer, but I guess her job was done. It's nice to think Peda has her best buddy with her now and that they get to hang out again. I suspect Neo missed Peda a great deal - she was quite lost when she came to visit and realised Peda was no longer here.

RIP Neo Morpheus Wiggybuns.